Place a case on legal hold to record a preservation duty inside Hintyr. Once issued, the hold blocks destructive actions on the documents in the case, marks the case workspace with a warning banner, and starts logging every move to an audit trail Hintyr can confirm has not been altered or removed. Uploads, sibling redactions, and privilege re-classifications keep working under a hold. They just get audit-stamped. A hold moves through four states: draft, active, released, and (for matters handed off) transferred.
When to place a case on hold
The trigger is straightforward: the moment preservation is reasonably anticipated. That standard predates Hintyr and predates every ediscovery tool. Courts apply it through FRCP 37(e) and the Sedona Conference Commentary on Legal Holds. In practice, you place a case on hold when any of these four events lands:
- Demand letter received.Opposing counsel signals intent to sue. Hold goes on. Don't wait for the complaint.
- Complaint filed. The case caption exists. Service may not have happened yet. Hold goes on the moment you learn of the filing.
- Regulatory inquiry. A subpoena, civil investigative demand, or a less formal request from a regulator. Treat it like litigation.
- Credible internal claim notice. An employee files a formal grievance, an officer is named in a whistleblower complaint, or a board committee opens an investigation.
When the trigger is unclear, default toward placing the hold. The cost of an unnecessary hold is administrative. The cost of a missed hold can be spoliation sanctions, adverse inferences, or worse.
Where you place the hold
Open the case kebab menu and pick the legal hold item. Hintyr shows Place on legal hold... on cases without an active hold and View legal holdon cases with one. The menu state matches the hold state. If a case is on hold, Hintyr also grays out destructive items in the same menu so you can't accidentally start a deletion the system would block anyway.
From there you have two paths. The kebab item opens the Place on legal hold wizard directly. Or, if you already have Case Settings open, pick the Legal hold tab. Both reach the same wizard.
What's blocked under a hold
Hintyr blocks the operations that would destroy preserved evidence and lets through the operations that genuinely add to the record. A legal hold doesn't freeze the case workspace; it freezes spoliation.
Blocked while a hold is active
- Deleting files. Whether by a single delete, a bulk action, or a case-level delete. Hintyr refuses and records the attempt to the audit log.
- Deduplication. Both file-level and email thread dedup are blocked. Preview runs are allowed. Apply is not.
- Changing custodian assignments at the file level. Reassigning a file to a different custodian rewrites chain-of-custody. Blocked.
- Overwriting an original.Replacing a file's content is blocked. You can still upload new versions as new files.
Allowed while a hold is active
- Uploads. New documents continue to flow in. Files uploaded under a hold carry a marker noting the active hold at ingest, and the upload is audit-stamped.
- Sibling redactions. Redact a sensitive passage, and Hintyr writes a redacted copy alongside the original. The original stays preserved.
- Privilege re-classification. Mark or unmark a document as privileged with a written justification. The change flows to the audit log along with the rationale.
The dividing line is the test in the Sedona Conference Commentary: does the action remove or alter existing evidence? If yes, blocked. If it adds new information or marks the existing record without destroying it, allowed and audit-logged.
The case workspace banner
Hintyr shows a sticky warning banner at the top of every case workspace while a hold is active. It reminds the case team that destructive operations are blocked and links to the hold detail panel via the View hold detailslink. The X button dismisses the banner for the current browser tab. A fresh tab or a new session brings the banner back. You can't silence it permanently from inside the workspace, by design.
The overview subtab when a hold is active
Once the hold is issued, the Legal hold panel opens to the Overview subtab. The status pill at the top reads Issued with the date. A summary card shows the custodian count, the acknowledgment rate, and the days since issuance. From here you can open Amend scope to widen or narrow the hold, Release to end it, or Export bundle to download the signed evidence package.
The overview subtab when the hold is still a draft
Drafts let you stage a hold before committing. Useful when the partner wants to review scope before the notice goes out. A draft hold doesn't enforce preservation, custodians aren't notified, and the case workspace doesn't carry the warning banner. The Overview subtab makes the draft state obvious and gives you two paths forward: Resume editing reopens the wizard with the saved fields, and Issue hold commits the draft. Drafts persist between sessions, so you can hand the work off to a colleague.
The four lifecycle states
A hold moves through up to four states. Most cases see three of them; the fourth applies when work moves to outside counsel.
- Draft.The hold exists inside Hintyr but isn't enforcing anything yet. No notices have gone out, the case workspace doesn't carry the banner, and destructive operations aren't blocked. Drafts are useful for staging before the partner signs off.
- Active. The hold is issued. The warning banner shows on the case workspace. Destructive operations are blocked. The custodian roster has been notified (or is queued for notice). The audit log is running.
- Released. The matter resolved and you ended the hold. Preservation enforcement stops, the banner comes down, and custodians are notified (or not, by your choice). The audit log stays intact and exportable forever.
- Transferred.Work moves to outside counsel and they take over the hold. Hintyr records the handoff. The hold itself doesn't reset.
Lifecycle transitions are one-way. A draft can be issued. An issued hold can be released or transferred. A released hold stays released. The audit log preserves the full sequence regardless of where you are now.
Who manages a hold
Case admins (and the firm administrators above them) can place a hold, amend its scope, send notices, and release it. Other case members can read the hold panel and see the audit log but can't change the hold state. The intent is to keep the preservation record consistent. If your firm has a designated preservation contact, that person should hold case-admin access on every matter under hold.
Edge cases and limits
- One active hold per case.A case has at most one active hold at a time. Drafts and released holds can coexist with a current active hold, but you can't issue a second one in parallel.
- External systems aren't paused by Hintyr. Holds in Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and similar external systems are your firm's responsibility to enable manually. The External systems checklist records what you've done.
- Custodian departures don't release the hold. If a custodian under hold leaves the organization, change their employment status to Departed, work the checklist, and keep them on the roster. Releasing a single custodian is a separate action.
- Banner dismissal is per session.The X on the banner clears it for the current tab. A fresh tab or new sign-in shows it again. That's deliberate.